Today we bring you the final episode of our CGTN special series "Reshaping China's Economy." China's economic transformation has been ongoing, but where is it headed? And is there enough driving force? Today CGTN reporter Ge Yunfei takes you to meet the country's growing middle class to see if there is an answer.

"I believe in Chinese brands and I think sooner rather than later they will dominate the whole market."

"Domestic consumption is the hope for the future."

Jogging, doing pilates, drinking handmade coffee and sharing their travels on social media, this is the typical lifestyle of the new rising middle class in China's major cities. 26-year-old Echo Chen, who works in the financial sector is one of those people.

ECHO CHEN CONSUMER "I really like to be in an edgy way. Be a pioneer, and then test out and share the good stuff with people."

And she recently picked up a new hobby of going shopping in a futuristic boutique supermarket launched by China's internet giant Alibaba.

ECHO CHEN CONSUMER "For example, there are nice environments and also more variety of food that I can choose but I can't buy it anywhere else."

This store is like the Chinese version of Amazon's Whole Foods Market with goods of higher prices but better quality. It took me a while to wander around the market. But eventually, I realized at least 40 percent of the goods are imported from overseas.

Official data shows that China's annual average disposable income per capita reached over 42 hundred US dollars in 2018, a 54% increase since 2013. According to People's Daily, more than 300 million people joined this middle-income group.

By 2017, the size of China's middle class had grown to almost the same size as the entire US population. And by 2022, the number of 550 million will outpace Europe's total population.

GE YUNFEI "In the past twenty years, traditional supermarkets like Wal-Mart and Carrefour have swept across China because of their low prices and huge variety of goods. But now this old strategy may no longer work with the rise of China's middle class. They have higher standards and tastes for what they buy and where they buy it and more tolerance of the price."

Now, the Chinese government wants its 30 million enterprises nationwide to be more creative and innovative. And the elevated appetite of Chinese middle-class consumers for high-quality products is helping the government achieve the goal of high-quality growth. Trumpchi, a domestic car-maker is one of those that echo the new demand with proper actions. In a downsizing auto market, it outperformed the market with a 5 percent increase thanks to its original design and innovation.

ZHANG FAN CHIEF DESIGNER, GAC TRUMPCHI MOTORS "Our dream or our ambition is to break into the international market, even to be a global leader. We want to create new trends that everybody will talk about and even try to follow."

The growing middle class is also propelling ambitions of the rule-breakers in China's internet sector to try and create another Tesla. Xpeng Motors, a young start-up based in Guangzhou, is betting its future on the middle class with cutting edge technology like autonomous driving and voice controls.

BRIAN GU VICE CHAIRMAN & PRESIDENT, XPENG MOTORS "A lot of them actually have high education, very much involved in their own technology endeavor. They love to play with technology. The middle-class is gonna determine ultimately the winners and losers of this race."

In the past three years, at least 15 electric vehicle start-ups have popped up across China, raising over 100 billion RMB or 15 billion dollars.

BRIAN GU VICE CHAIRMAN & PRESIDENT, XPENG MOTORS "The Chinese economy firstly is driven by the huge consumer market. I don't think any other market can rival that."

As China moves toward high-end manufacturing, the upgrading of its consumer base is attracting some of the world's state-of-the-art manufacturers.

ELON MUSK CEO OF TESLA, INC. "Giga factory Shanghai will be the first Tesla Gigafactory outside of the United States and will be our most advanced Giga factory."

What sets Tesla's Shanghai factory apart is that it mainly manufactures cars and batteries for the Chinese market. Forty years ago, China opened up to become a world factory making nearly everything for global buyers.

In 2018, China's foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing increased over 35%.

DR. SUN JUNLING PRESIDENT, SUN INT'L INVESTMENT HOLDINGS "We are presented with a tremendous opportunity in China to re-engineer our product line to concentrate on the new market here."

For forty years, the nation savored the most miraculous and longest economic prosperity in history. But part of any natural cycle includes a slowdown. In years past, it was the people who worked the wonders. And now it will be the people who will work things out. Ge Yunfei, CGTN.